This invention relates to a novel call distribution system that can be implemented in any telephonic environment with all existing equipment. More particularly, the present invention relates to blending a multiple types of communication in a call center environment.
As communications technology continues to advance, methods of communication between businesses and their customers are becoming increasingly diverse. Examples of this diversity are prevalent in routine business transactions. Businesses and customers routinely communicate using facsimile transmissions and e-mail over such diverse communication channels including phone lines, the internet, and a company""s local intranet. To better serve their customers, businesses must find new ways to communicate with their customers that take full advantage of the diversity of telecommunications technology available.
This is especially vital in the call center environment where the typical paradigm has been the use of the telephone communication. While telephone communication is the prevalent form of the customer communication in this environment, the increasing popularity of the internet and the increasing use of facsimile (fax) transmission to communicate indicates that call centers should enhance their processing capabilities to deal effectively with the new technologies.
Moreover, call centers have typically been concerned with receiving calls. That is, the agents in the call centers are not typically set up to perform outbound calling. This limitation can be critical where callers are disconnected, hang up, or are otherwise not serviced by an agent. In such a case it would be beneficial to have a call center environment that facilitates outbound calling so that agents can reach potential customers, that would otherwise be lost.
The present invention solves the forgoing deficiencies in the call center environment by xe2x80x9cblendingxe2x80x9d the various types of communications that the call center can receive and presenting information related to the various types of communications that are received to agents. The information is presented to the agents in a queue list, which lists the various types of xe2x80x9ccallsxe2x80x9d and provides information related to each such xe2x80x9ccall.xe2x80x9d Such information can include the caller""s identification, the call type and the reason for the call. The xe2x80x9ccallsxe2x80x9d can be inbound calls, outbound calls, e-mail messages, facsimile (fax) transmissions, or any other type of communication, whether now known, or hereafter developed.
From the queue list, an agent can select which xe2x80x9ccallxe2x80x9d to further process. By blending the various types of communication into a common form for presentation to a call center""s agents, the present invention solves the aforementioned deficiencies in the art related to a call center""s providing convenience to its customers that may want to use various forms of communication. Such forms of communication include, but are not limited to, telephony, e-mail and facsimile fax transmission. In fact, any communication type that is now known or heretofore developed and that can be reduced to a computer usable form can be encompassed by the present invention.
As previously mentioned, the present invention also blends outbound call processing with inbound call processing. This enables agents to conveniently place outbound calls for whatever reason such outbound calling may be required. For example, outbound calling may be required to reach a potential customer that was disconnected from the call queue, but for whom sufficient information is known to return a call to the disconnected caller. Various methods exist for obtaining such information including caller identification methods, and call preprocessing to extract information from the caller prior to the caller""s reaching an agent. To enable outbound call processing, the present invention blends outbound calls into the agent""s queue list such that agents can see information related to the outbound call. Outbound calling can be on an agent selective basis or be forced on agents that are idle, or otherwise deemed appropriate to perform the outbound call.
To blend the various types of communication, including outbound calls, the present invention employs a xe2x80x9cBlenderxe2x80x9d process responsive to the particular communication in question. For example, a Fax responder responds to fax messages and provides appropriate processing to enable information related to the fax transmission to be present to the agents in the call center that handle fax transmissions. The information is presented to the agents in their respective queue lists. Agents can select any call to process from their respective queues, regardless of whether the xe2x80x9ccallxe2x80x9d is an inbound telephone call or some other form of communication. By giving call center agents the flexibility to handle multiple types of communication is a seamless manner, and additionally facilitating outbound calling, the present invention greatly enhances the call processing capability of today""s call centers.
In one embodiment of the invention, a call processor in a call center has one or more agents to answer calls. Each agent uses an agent computer to help process the calls. The call processor also has a central computer for running a blender process. The blender process blends multiple types of communications for display to each agent. The central computer is connected to each agent via a computer network. Each agent computer contains a display device for presenting information related to the communications that are to be processed by the call center. The information is displayed in a queue list on each agent""s display device. A message router is used to transmit the information related to the communications that are to be processed by agents in the call center.